Casually Serious Politics

 Round-up of Media Reactions to Dr. Tiller’s Death on Monday

More than one news organization has picked up on the campaign Bill O’Reilly waged against Dr. Tiller (an abortion doctor he called “Tiller the Baby Killer”). Few, however, have connected it to the very organizations which breed and develop human life which will find it heroic or honorable to commit such murders: militant pro-life organizations.

Less than a month ago, militant pro-life organizations like the Pro-Life Action League, Operation Rescue, etc were at the gates of Notre Dame on Sunday. They had sent trucks with graphic images to circle Notre Dame’s campus and were joined by a right wing Center for Bio-Ethic Reform’s “dead baby” plane which occupied the airspace above Notre Dame’s campus as often as possible. 

The groups and organizations present were just the same groups who Rachel Maddow profiled on her show last night.

Maddow’s brief history of “pro-life” terrorism included Rescue America, Operation Rescue, Operation Save America, and perhaps, most chillingly, details on Army of Go.

If you go to the Web site of the Army of God, you will find hagiographic websites for anti-abortion terrorist movement heroes, like Paul Hill and Eric Rudolph and Shelly Shannon. You can actually scroll through pages and pages of mug shots and descriptions of bombings and shootings and murders and attempted murders — all praising the perpetrators, and even suggesting ways to get away with the same types of crimes that these people committed but you could do it without getting caught.

On their front page today — there`s Dr. George Tiller, just murdered, under the caption, “The lives of innocent babies scheduled to be murdered by George Tiller are spared by the action of American hero, Scott Roeder.”

There`s an anti-abortion terrorist movement in the United States that operates relatively openly. They advocate and their members commit acts of violence, including murder, against Americans who are not breaking the law, who are engaged in protected legal activity on American soil.

On Countdown w/ Keith Olbermann, Olbermann opened his show saying:

“A religious jihad by fundamentalist crusaders who believe that murder is justified, their acts of violence having the intended effect of changing behavior.

Our fifth story on the COUNTDOWN: Not the Taliban, not Hamas, not al Qaeda. If the brutal murder of Dr. George Tiller — the Wichita OB/GYN who, among many other things, provided abortions — does not qualify as an act domestic terrorism, what does?”

As he went through the details of the murder which those who have been following this closely are now painfully aware of, he then turned to conservative Andrew Sullivan from The Atlantic for an exceptionally open conversation on the murder of Dr. George Tiller and American society.

OLBERMANN: We`ve seen this whenever a woman`s health care provider — or as they`re phrased derogatorily in the worst tone to the word — abortion provider, abortionist, late-term abortionist — whenever one is attacked or a clinic is attacked, or there`s been a bombing in the last 20 or 30 years in this country, we`ve seen the following responses. There has been a pullback. The number of services provided to women has been reduced. There has been an increase of security in these places. It becomes more difficult.

And anytime you go to one of these centers, there now becomes — at least for a time — the question: is somebody in this crowd a potential assassin? This is not only terrorism, but this is terrorism that works in this country. Is that fair to say?

SULLIVAN: It is. And terrorism, unfortunately, often works. That`s why it`s used.

I do think that — I mean, I`m personally opposed to what he does. I actually don`t believe in late-term abortions.

But I have to say — on my blog today, a lot of women wrote in and told me their own stories of this. And I was kind of shaken by the fact that most — most women — almost all women that go to these places, are in desperate straits. The children are very, very deformed or ill or will not survive birth or the mother`s health is directly threatened. These are very grave and difficult circumstances.

I think that Dr. Tiller — even though I disagree with him — was acting according to his conscience, within the law. And I think, our role, those of us who want to end abortion, is to act within our conscience, and persuade and testify and peacefully protest, but not engage in this kind of stuff.

You know, the conservative commentariats, they do bear some of this, not responsibility for the killing, the responsibility for the climate, and the climate when they call people murderers. When this man, obviously, I think they might obviously believed that this is a taking of a human life, but to call someone murderer is to gather the motives, to demonize him in a way they demonize him in a way that was really — I mean, if you look at the Web site, TillerKiller.com .

OLBERMANN: Yes.

SULLIVAN: . this stuff is just evil.

Prior to Sullivan’s appearance, Notre Dame was mentioned:

OLBERMANN: Is the ember of common ground that the president seem to have reached at Notre Dame, trying to lower the number of women who could possibly want or need abortions — is that ember cold now? Or is there still some hope for some middle ground?

WOLFFE: Well, I think this debate is really playing out not at the extreme here, but in the middle. And there is common ground there because — actually, if you dig underneath the labels, whether people say they`re pro-life or pro choice, people don`t like abortions. And there are medical professionals who are engaged in this kind of health care who don`t like abortions.

So, there is — there is middle ground. But you have to strip out this emotion. If there is any good out of this, it would be that people could separate that emotion from the actual people involved here — something tells me that`s just not going to happen, that this will only increase the emotions involved

Maddow dedicated much of her show to the discussion of abortion in America, the killing of Dr. Tiller, and how a democratic society protects speech and looks for that speech that presents imminent threats.

Olbermann ended his show decrying Bill O’Reilly and specifically, FOX News, as he discussed what to do to oppose a network that does not oppose the incitement of violence.

So what to do? Viewer boycotts mean little. You are already here. You are not watching Fox News Channel. Advertiser boycotts are also of limited value. Most make barely a dent in a company. Besides which, in this economy, an advertiser that found its sales boosted by association with malaria would start breeding mosquitoes.

If there is a solution, it is perhaps an indirect boycott. It is probably your experience, as it has been mine, that stores, bars, restaurants, waiting rooms often show Fox News on their televisions. Don`t write a letter, don`t make a threat, just get up and explain, if they will not change the channel, leave the place and say calmly why it is you are taking your business elsewhere. If you know a viewer of that channel, show them this tape, or just the tape of the attacks on Dr. Tiller that set the stage for his assassination.

Fox News Channel will never restrain itself from incitement to murder and terrorism, not until its profits begin to decline, when its growth stops. So not so much a boycott here as a quarantine, because this has got to stop.

On the Ed Show, Ed Schultz happened to feature a clip of Randall Terry, a leader from the anti-abortion group, Operation Rescue.

His guest, former president of Naral Pro-Choice America Kate Michelman, reacted to a recent YouTube video posted on OverturnRoe.com by Randall Terry:

MICHELMAN: Well, it just sickens me to hear this. You know, I`ve been listening to Randall Terry for a long time, and I will admit something to you, Ed. And I was trying to decide whether I would say this or not tonight as we talked.

I`ve been a little nervous about what will happen now that we have an Obama administration, a president who respects the right of women to decide when it`s time for them to become mothers and who respects the right of privacy, who respects the right of doctors to practice medicine as they deem appropriate and necessary for their women patients. And the anti- choice movement, in the past, when they`ve lost power in the White House, in the Congress, they sometimes have resorted to more violence. And I have been a little worried about this…

SCHULTZ: So you think this is going to continue? You think this kind of activity is going to continue?

MICHELMAN: No, I certainly hope it`s not going to continue. But I have been worried.

I mean, Randall Terry is not a person who represents the majority of people in this country. People in this country want women`s choices and decisions respected, but they would like to see us as a nation invest more in helping to prevent the need for abortion through sex education and through contraceptive care and through emergency contraception. And the same people often — not everyone, but often, the very people who are violently opposed to a woman`s decision to have an abortion are the same people who oppose the use of birth control or comprehensive sex education or emergency contraception.

SCHULTZ: Well, that sound bit from — I have to tell you, Kate, that sound bite from Mr. Terry, he almost endorses the killing, in my opinion.

MICHELMAN: Exactly. Exactly.

SCHULTZ: I mean, he almost endorses the killing, and I think that`s really dangerous.

Terry was the ringleader of the protests and civil disobedience actions at Notre Dame which were designed to make the campus a “circus” and a “mudpit” for all those who were on campus on a daily basis.

Up until Obama’s speech, Terry was plotting move after move yet nothing was violent unless you consider the images, the rhetoric, or the sharp actions themselves to be violent.

Terry was a darling of the media, a man who allowed the media to fulfill its objectivity quotient each day so that it could present the controversy surrounding Notre Dame in a “fair and balanced” manner that gave voice to both sides.

But, the very nature of this murder has Terry and perhaps other pro-life activists terrified of the repercussions. The very fact that Scott Roeder posted a comment on Operation Rescue’s website and is now the suspect in the case of the murder of Dr. Tiller must chill the bones of a man like Terry.

No, not really. In this video, this is what Terry has to say of this despicable act:

“We are in a moment of crisis but we are also in a teaching moment or as some of our bishops and some our friends at the White House say, we want to have dialogue. Tiller was a mass murderer. He had blood all over his hands.

Now, we grieve for him that he was shot in this deplorable manner and that he did not have a chance to get things right with his maker perhaps. Every man deserves a jury of his peers and then a proper execution, not to have someone become, judge, jury, and executioner on their own…

…He was one of the most evil people on the planet—every bit as evil as Nazi war criminals. Now, I know that offends people who are watching this but it is the truth. It is the truth from Heaven’s vantage point. According to the Scriptures, the law of God, the teaching of the Church, he was a mass murderer. And, he reaped what he sowed.”

Dr. Tiller—akin to a Nazi war criminal? America supported the killing of Nazis and to this day those comparable to Nazis are people this nation would vote to kill if a vote was taken.

Truth from Heaven’s vantage point, Scriptures, law of God, the Church—such truth is the truth of danger. It is truth that does not budge, that does not have a human conscience. It is truth that compels men to do evils in the name of the holy for what one considers to be pure sanctimonious reasons even if by definition of the law those evils are not allowed.

Terry, a Pentecostal, now will continue his fundamentalist crusade claiming that the state will demand his movement’s words, actions, and imaged of “truth” are surrendered.

He and others believe their incendiary work to be similar to the women’s voting rights movement, the movement to end slavery, the movement to end child labor, and the civil rights activist who fought to end segregation. It is this delusion alone that gives them the strength to believe that they will one day in this world separated from Heaven achieve their ends.

To Terry and people like him in other groups, this was something that “sticks out,” an exception to the rule.

If people were being killed every week, it would not make national news anymore than crack dealers shooting each other week does. This sticks out precisely because it is so unusual. Because, we are so peaceful.

Maybe it sticks out for another reason. Perhaps, it sticks out because drawing line from your tactics to this killing is hard to do.

It’s hard to pinpoint when a person saw graphic photos of babies and turned away disgusted at humanity. It’s hard to pinpoint when a person became upset as he or she witnessed acts of civil disobedience somewhere, perhaps a college campus like Notre Dame, and saw police arresting those who were trying to “defend life.”

But, the foundation was created. It was there because groups like the ones Terry was and still is a part of laid the foundation. And, it will be there for people like Bill O’Reilly to talk to today and tomorrow just like it was here yesterday.

If we consider the fundamentalism which spurns such lone actors, which spurns such violence, we realize that these people may respect God but they do not respect the human body. They have no respect for the flesh.

Their disrespect allows for them to oppose a woman’s right to choose and it allows them to refuse dialogue on the issue of abortion and how to reduce them. It allows them to commit heinous acts against health care providers protected by the rule of law.

The idea that the body possesses no essence of humanity, that the flesh happens to be meat, that suffering in the body matters little or not at all—This gives anti-abortionists who are radically fundamentalist in their ideals the capacity to privately or publicly condone or tacitly support violent acts which move them closer to their goals.

Such convictions hold powerful ramifications for those who let these convictions dictate what society is and is not allowed to do. The convictions are not of this world—they are not of the flesh. They are supernatural and ignorant to the suffering and well-being of others.

UPDATE 1

These are additional videos from the media coverage of Dr. Tiller’s murder.

MSNBC covered the “other” network, but what’s interesting is that ABC News, not a cable news show, picked up on O’Reilly’s campaign against Tiller.

This is Bill O’Reilly’s defense of his campaign against Dr. Tiller which many believe laid the foundation for Dr. Tiller’s murder.

 It’s impossible to listen to O’Reilly talk about how the liberals would like him to fold and not connect him to Randall Terry’s comments on how the pro-life movement should not “flinch” in this moment.

Obama said of the murder that he was “shocked and outraged” by Tiller’s murder. “However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence,” he added.  (FirstRead)

There has been suggestion that this could impact the Supreme Court nomination of Sotomayor. That suggestion is probably being made so the news shows can continue to cover the Sotomayor nomination.

The correct response to the murder would lead to segments as hard-hitting as the ones Rachel Maddow did last night. They would involve recalling and investigating past murders of abortion doctors or terrorist acts committed by anti-abortionists.

News shows afraid to alienate pro-life people, however, shirk from their duty to cover the truth honestly and sharply. They prefer to create this idea that the death of a man could increase the likelihood of having to decide in court whether abortions should be legal or illegal, whether Roe v. Wade should be overturned.

That’s just what anti-abortionists want. They want people, as a result of their actions, to begin to debate Roe v. Wade in the context of Sotomayor’s nomination.

They don’t want news shows to investigate what the impact of murders by lone actors are on health care facilities where doctors work and perform abortions protected by law.

UPDATE 2

Critical Path notified me of a segment on Anderson Cooper 360 last night. Here is a link to the segment recommended.

I found this video on YouTube from Cooper’s show.

A  woman, who fears being targeted by anti-abortionists, discusses her late-term abortion and her thoughts on how late-term abortions are viewed in American society.

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